Australia is in the grip of the worst flu season on record but WA may get off lightly

Camera IconWhile Australia reels from its worst flu season on record, WA has so far been somewhat protected. Credit: Getty Images

Australia is in the grip of its worst flu season on record.

Already there have been 71,256 laboratory confirmed cases across the nation, well on track to surpass the previous record in 2015 of 100,590 cases.

The news is good for WA, though, with notifications here low thanks to a combination of distance, weather and ecology.

So far there have been 1639 confirmed WA cases, less than what we had at the same time last year.

But Paul Effler, medical coordinator of the prevention and control program at WA Health Department’s Communicable Disease Control Directorate, said that did not mean the season would continue to be mild.

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“We may still be in for our peak, it may just be delayed coming here so I wouldn’t write this season off yet for WA,” he said.

“The indications are now that we are headed (for a light season) but it could change pretty quickly.

“When I look at the data from the east coast it seems like they pretty much sky-rocketed over a week or two with their cases. That could still happen here.”

Professor Effler said most people who wanted to be vaccinated had probably done it already but it was still worthwhile getting vaccinated now, especially for those travelling interstate.

“It does take a couple of weeks for the vaccine to be effective so if they wanted to be vaccinated they would need to do it right away.”

Professor Effler said it there was no clear explanation as to why one State would suffer a more acute flu season than another.

“We are on par with vaccination coverage rates over east so I wouldn’t attribute it to that, I think it would have more to do with weather and ecology than anything else but again we are speculating.”

Immunisation Coalition chairman Paul Van Buynder said the flu’s impact had been felt across the age spectrum in the community because of the mix of the four flu strains that were circulating.

And Queensland (18,639), NSW (33,244) and South Australia (7147) had been hit hardest.

Professor Van Buynder said there had been speculation that these increases in notifications were due to increased testing, but while that accounted for some it didn’t account for the big total.

Instead, the record-breaking season was due to wide transmission across the age spectrum in the community and because vaccination rates were too low, particularly among those most at risk.

In the elderly vaccination rates had stagnated at 75-80 per cent, rates in pregnant women were 50 per cent, in children it was less than 10 per cent and those with chronic disease it was 30 per cent.

“Even though we are at the peak or almost at the peak in some states in Australia, particularly if you are in one of these groups it is never too late to vaccinate.